Onwartio Mars

Future Missions

14

Mission to Planet Earth

21

The Quest for Origins

28

To Serve the Nation

32

Institutional Activities

35

Honors and Awards

40

Finances and Personnel

42

The

National Aeronautics and Space Administration's broad-based program of

Solar System exploration received an unexpected boost in 1996 when two scientific findings offered tantalizing - if still preliminary - signs that the conditions
for life may not be limited to planet Earth. In early August, at a televised news
conference presided over by NASA Administrator Daniel S. Goldin, a team of NASA
and university researchers announced that a meteorite known as Allan Hills84001 (AH84001), which fell to Earth from Mars some 13,000 years
ago, bears chemical and possibly fossil evidence of microbial organisms some 3.6 billion years old, dating from a time when Mars appears to have been warmer and wetter - and thus more favorable for
the start of biological processes.

Days later, scientists with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory-managed

Galileo mission released new images of Jupiter's moon Europa that
suggested the presence of slushy ice or liquid water beneath the
moon's frozen crust. Water, of course, is the essential component of
life on Earth, and Galileo's finding, though less controversial than the
claim for the Mars meteorite, must also be viewed with what Administrator Goldin termed "skeptical optimism." Both findings - coming after a year of
discovery in which astronomers detected evidence of planets around at least five
stars - increased public awareness of our own Solar System, and also coincided
with preparations by JPL scientists and engineers to launch two spacecraft to the
Red Planet in November and December 1996 as the start of an ambitious 10-year
program of exploration.

The Mars and Europa findings, while generating fresh excitement worldwide in
old, but fundamental, scientific and philosophical issues - Are we alone? Does
life exist elsewhere in the Universe? - served more immediately as a striking illustration of how quickly and creatively a reengineered JPL can respond to new
challenges and new opportunities. As part of the planning for the decade-long
Mars Surveyor exploration effort, which will send two spacecraft to the planet
every 26 months beginning with the late-1996 launches of Mars Global Surveyor
and Mars Pathfinder, a JPL-led team determined that Martian samples could be
returned to Earth within the first 10 to 20 years of the next century within current
Congressional and Administration budgetary constraints. After the Allan Hills meteorite announcement, however, the JPL team reconvened to map out a more focused search for evidence of life on the Martian surface. Working with other JPL

planners, the team developed three strategies - designated as "paced," "accelerated" and "aggressive" - for the collection and return of samples from those
areas of Mars to be identified as most conducive (for example, river or lake bottoms) to life. The "paced" option called for a 2005 mission, with samples returned
to Earth by 2008; the "accelerated" option for a 2003 mission and sample return
by 2006, and the "aggressive" for a 2001 mission with a surface "field geologist"
rover and sample return also by 2006.
Within months, these proposals had been
reviewed by scientists, technologists and
engineers throughout NASA and at major
American universities, and presented to
NASA's Solar
System

THE

JET

PROPULSION

LABORATORY

Ex-

ploration
Committee

for its consideration. Proposing such an

ambitious series of missions with a compressed time frame would have been unthinkable just a few years ago. But the "faster, better, cheaper" philosophy now
pervading the Laboratory's work -

with its emphasis on short development

cycles, the application of the latest technologies and instrument capabilities and
strict cost controls - makes such goals feasible and affordable.

The Mars sample-return mission should also be seen as part of a larger movement
at JPL - a second great wave of space exploration. This new wave, capitalizing on
the initial reconnaissance of nearly all the planets of the Solar System over the
past three decades, is based on landers, penetrators, atmospheric probes and
other in situ experiments and sensors all considerably smaller, yet more capable
than - and designed specifically to address questions raised by - their predecessors. A prominent example: the 339-kilogram Galileo probe, whose high-speed
descent into Jupiter in late 1995 prompted scientists to revise their previous theories about the Jovian atmosphere. Galileo is only the most recent example of this
new approach. And in the works are not just Mars sample returns, but missions
that will dig deep into planetary soil and ice, embed networks of miniature seismic and meteorological sensors in planetary terrains and catch dust and gas particles from a comet. Nineteen ninety-six was clearly a year of great discovery as
well as one of great progress, with the hint of even greater discoveries to come.

GALILEO

A T

JUPITER

ear successfu lly completed the first half of its two-year, 11-orbit
tour of the miniature so lar system t ha

is Jupiter and its moons. After deploying an instru-

pi n ge into the planet's atmosphere on December 7,1995,

the spacecr a'tt:s orb

tlata d uri

;g

a quick flyby of the satellite 10 before going

on to close encounters with its sister moons Ganymede (June 27 and September 6), Callisto
(November 4) and Europa (December 18).

Galileo's 11 scientific instruments comprise the most comprehensive and capable suite of
experiments ever to scan another planet. Galileo's mission is to explore Jupiter in its dual
roles as dominant sibling among the planets and substellar companion to the Sun. The
planet, its 16 moons and its extended sphere of magnetic influence are a unique laboratory,
within which researchers can test their theories of planetary and star formation.

By that measure, scientists got what they bargained for in 1996, as the atmospheric probe
(managed by NASA's Ames Research Center) returned findings on composition, wind speed
and cloud structure that ran contrary to earlier, prevailing theories on the Jovian atmosphere. And by year's end, scientists had gotten their best looks yet at the four biggest
moons of Jupiter -

known as the Galilean moons, because they were first discovered in

the 17th century by the spacecraft's namesake, Galileo Galilei.

As has become the rule in planetary exploration, a series of surprising results raised as
many new questions as it answered old ones. The innermost Galilean moon, volcanic l o a revelation during the Voyager 1 and 2 encounters of 1979 -

proved to be as active today

as it probably has ever been, and to possess both an iron core and a dense high-altitude
ionosphere. Giant Ganymede, slightly larger than the planet Mercury, appears to have its
own magnetosphere, making it the only moon in the Solar System found to have a magnetic
field. Remote Callisto showed a mysterious chain of impact craters and unexpected signs of
erosion on its ancient surface. And evidence of icy volcanism on Europa kept alive speculation that it may harbor a liquid ocean beneath its cracked and banded crust.

Chaos at 10
In May, Galileo scient i sts announced their first major finding of the orbital mission: the
detection of a massive iron core in 10 . The discovery came from the December 1995 flyby,
when the spacecraft swooped to within 900 kilometers of the small moon on its way into

orbit around Jupiter Precise measurements of Gailleo's radio signal at that time revealed
slight deviations In the spacecraft's trajectory -

caused by lo's gravitational field -

and

led Gahleo SCientists to pOSit a metallIC core about 900 kilometers (COinCidentally, almost
the same dimension as the flyby altltude) In radius The core IS thought to

Galileo detected an iron core in

[0,

be Iron and Iron sulfide, above that

but Ganymede remains the

IS

another layer, approXimately 900 kilo-

only known moon with a magnetic field

meters thICk, of partly molten rock

10 undergoes continual distortion In

the powerful. complex Interplay of the gravitational fields of Jupiter and lo's sister moons,
Europa and Ganymede Their constant pushing and pulling raise "body tides" In 10, Similar to
oceanic tides on Earth caused by the gravitational distortion of the Sun and Earth's Moon In
lo's case, the ceaseless pumping melts the httle moon's subsurface layers and spews lava onto
the surface through at least nine active volcanoes Indeed, 10 IS the most active body In the
Solar System, and though less than a third the size of Earth, It generates tWICe as much heat
Data gathered during that first encounter also revealed a large hole In Jupiter's magnetIC
field Instead of steadily increasing as the spacecraft neared Jupiter, the field's strength suddenly dropped about 30 percent In the VICinity of 10 That result, which one Gailleo SCientist
termed "astOnishing" and "completely unexpected," suggests that something (pOSSibly ItS
own magnetic field) IS,

In

effect, gouging a chunk out of Jupiter's magnetosphere By year's

end, no definitive conclusion had been drawn, however, and the honors for the only known
moon with a magnetIC field were stili with Ganymede SCientists remained hopeful that
future observations of 10 would prOVide more clues
In October, SCientists reported yet another finding at 10 from the December 1995 flyby the
detection of a dense Ionosphere -

a region of electrICally charged gases, a feature of some

other planetary atmospheres, Including Earth's -

at an unexpectedly high altitude of 900 ki-

lometers The layer of Ionized oxygen, sulfur and sulfur diOXide

IS

believed to be shot upward

by the relentless volcanIC activity below The finding was surprising for two reasons One, the
expectation that any such gases would be swept away by Jupiter's rotating magnetosphere
and, two, the belief (based upon data from the two Voyagers and Pioneer spacecraft) that
the volcanIC plumes rise only a few hundred kilometers at most The difference between what
the earlier miSSions saw and what Gahleo observed indICates that lo's atmosphere and Ionosphere are variable and may grow and shrink With greater or lesser cycles of volcanIC activity
DUring the year, SCientists also released Images shOWing other SignifICant changes at 10 since
the Voyager encounters Variations
ground were partICularly striking -

In

the color and distribution patterns of material on the

notably, new depOSits of sulfur and sulfur diOXide around

the active volcano Masubl In the moon's southern hemisphere Comparison of Gahleo and
Voyager Images also revealed stark differences at the volcano Ra Patera, where an area the
size of New Jersey appears to have been covered by new volcanIC depOSits Gahleo's Images
of thiS volcano show a blue volcanIC plume extending about 100 kilometers Into space, the
blue color IS beheved to be the result of tiny partICles of sulfur diOXide "snow," whICh condense from the gas as the plume expands and cools

Dynamism at Ganymede
Gailleo made Its first close flyby of Jupiter's largest moon, Ganymede, on June 27, returnIng stunning close-ups of tectonically deformed terrain and discovering strong eVidence of
a magnetic field The spacecraft flew 835 kilometers above the surface of the 5,262-kllometer-dlameter moon, coming about 70 times closer than Voyager 2 and 130 times closer than
Voyager 1 High-resolution Images showed that Ganymede's surface has been extensively
reshaped by the same tectonIC forces that bUild mountains and shove continents around
on Earth Images of the areas known as Galileo Reglo and Uruk Sulcus displayed anCient,
cratered Ice fields adjacent to, or overlain by, younger features such as plains, ridged ICe
mountains, deep furrows and smooth broad baSinS -

all indicative of volcanism and tec-

tonic forces at work These new Images have helped sCientists better understand this
Galilean moon's appearance that seemed so strange when first seen by the Voyagers
17 years earlier
SCientists also discovered that Ganymede possesses a magnetosphere -

a bubble-shaped

region of electrically charged particles Though several planets have surrounding magnetospheres, no moons were preViously known to have one, the only other solid bodies In the
Solar System known to have magnetIC fields before this were Mercury and Earth (and now,
In addition to Ganymede, pOSSibly 10 as well) Related measurements hinted at the presence of a thin Ionosphere and a tenuous oxygen atmosphere
The second Ganymede encounter, on September 6, brought Galileo Just 262 kilometers
above that moon's north pole, In what will be the closest flyby of any of the Jovian satellites during the two-year primary miSSion ThiS repeat VISit allowed the spacecraft to take
more pICtures of the Galileo Reglo and Uruk Sulcus areas, making pOSSible the creation of
three-dimenSional stereo Image pairs, these Will help SCientists resolve uncertainties about
the topography of those ICY surfaces In addition, gravity data obtained from precIsion
tracking of the spacecraft supported the earlier findings indICating a magnetIC field The
gravity data Indicate that Ganymede has an Iron-rocky core approximately 1,300 kilometers
In diameter, surrounded by a mantle of ICe and rock perhaps another 800 to 1,000 kilometers thick The boundary between the two could be warm enough to soften the deepest
mantle layers, and thiS differentiated structure could generate the moon's magnetic field
In the same way the Earth's IS generated

by the dynamo action of a flUid mantle

rotating around a metallIC core

Another Waterworld?
In August, Gailleo returned Images of Europa that strongly suggested slushy ICe or perhaps
even liqUid water may once have eXisted (and perhaps stili does) beneath thiS moon's ICY,
cracked surface There were segments With linear features that seem to have been continuous at some distant time, but now are discontinuous, offset, rotated or overlain by other,
presumably newer, fractures

SCientists remarked that these features resembled nothing so much as Ice floes here
on Earth Indeed, looking at the "mottled" terrain, parallel grooves and wide, SinUOUS,
smooth bands that could be distinguished on, or between, these crustal segments or floes,
there was consensus that underlYing material must have gushed up through cracks and
periodically replated Europa's surface
And when SCientists took all these clues together -

a brittle surface churned by some

energy source, the apparent presence of silicate compounds and possibly liquid water they had to wonder If Europa might not have environmental "niches" warm enough and
wet enough to support some form of primitive life While the Galileo spacecraft cannot
answer this question conclusively, ItS provocative findings prompted SCientists to begin
thinking of one or more future missions that would address the Issue directly

Surprises at Callisto
Gailleo made the first of three planned flybys of Callisto, the outermost Galilean moon,
on November 4, passing within 1,100 kilometers of a surface that SCientists have characterIzed as the oldest and most heavily cratered of any yet seen

In

the Solar System With data

from the encounter, SCientists hoped to learn why Callisto seems so much less active than
Its Jovian siblings
Orbiter Instruments took various measurements of Callisto's surface to determine ItS composition and history, to look for eVidence of tectonic activity and to search for hints of
a magnetIC field This moon seems also to have a rocky core, surrounded by an ICe crust one beanng the scars of tens of thousands of meteortc Impacts In a way, the large number
of craters was not surprising, but the comparative absence of small craters was This suggested to some SCientists that small-scale features were being filled

In

or obliterated, one

possible process was the landslide-like movement of debris down the ICy, 10w-fnctlOn
slopes of these features As It happens, there are bright slopes vIsible In some craters
where material appears to have slipped downward, exposing fresh, underlYing ICe strata
Other Galileo Images of Callisto showed a chain of craters that could be the sequential
Impacts of a shattered object, a discovery reminiscent of the peppering of Jupiter's atmosphere by the diSintegrating Shoemaker-Levy 9 comet In July 1994

Advances on the Ground

The Callisto flyby was notable also as a demonstration of an Improved telecommunications
capability deSigned to return as much mission data as pOSSible The JPL-managed Deep
Space Network was augmented by arraYing the 70-meter-dlameter antenna at Canberra,
Australia, With two nearby 34-meter-dlameter dishes at the Commonwealth SCientifIC and
Industnal Research Organization (CSIRO) 64-meter Parkes radio astronomy telescope Site,
some 320 kilometers northwest of Canberra

ArraYing -

electronically combining the faint signals received from the spacecraft by

several antennas to Improve the quality of the transmissions -

was the final engineering

solution devised by JPL engineers to compensate for the loss of Gailleo's onglnal hlghspeed, large-capacity telecommunications stream What had been expected to be a flood
of data became Instead a trickle when the spacecraft's primary 5-meter-dlameter, high-gain
antenna failed to open fully dUring the cruise to Jupiter and engineers had to reroute all
transmiSSions to and from the spacecraft over Its smaller lower-capaCity, low-gain antenna
Nearing Callisto, Galileo was at Its most distant from Earth and Its weak radiO signals were
extremely difficult to capture cleanly and clearly Earlier modifications to the spacecraft's
onboard computer's data-compression processes haVing prOVided a factor of 10 Improvement to Signal clarity and reception, arraYing the ground-based Australian tracking stations now Yielded an additIOnal 10-fold Increase

In

the quantity of data returned over the

low-gain antenna Everything taken together, these Improvements should enable Gailleo
to meet 70 percent of ItS Original sCientifiC goals
In 1996, the Deep Space Network, with installations In Goldstone, California, as well as In
Spain and Australia -

supported some 40 planetary and Earth-orbiting missions In addition

to Galileo and prOVided a better than 98 percent return of scheduled telemetry data The
new hardware, software and operations that made arraying pOSSible represent a major
advance that will continue to pay dividends The effort should prove partICularly benefiCial
to the new generation of "faster, better, cheaper" Interplanetary missions under the JPLmanaged New Millennium program, allOWing spacecraft deSigners to reduce costs by uSing
smaller onboard antennas and transmitters

Work progressed In 1996 on the construction of severa I 34-meter-dlameter antennas

equipped with beam-waveguide technology These new antennas Will replace their aging
counterparts from the 19605, whICh not only employ older technology but have become
more diffiCult and more expensive to maintain When the next-generation spacecraft, with
their smaller transmitters and antennas, require a higher downlink data rate, they Will rely
on fields of these 34-meter antennas, since there are no plans to build any more 70-meter
units Three of the new antennas went on line at Goldstone, when they are equipped with
the proper electroniCS, they can be arrayed with an eXisting fourth antenna to prOVide the
equivalent performance of a 70-meter apparatus
In addition, a new antenna has been built at Canberra and IS expected to be operational
In

February 1997, and another IS under construction at the Deep Space Network complex

near Madrid, With operations expected to begin

Cassin I spacecraft to Saturn

In

time for the October 1997 launch of the

ONWARD

T 0

MARS

The Mars Global Surveyor and Mars Pathfin e r spaceclt ft in au gu

Red Planet in 1996 with their launc hes atop McDon n el Dou glas
decades after the landmark Viking

issions. Surveyor was laun ch

10-month cruise to the planet, whe te...it will map the Mar.1iall gJdbel in pol a oro it for at
least two years. Pathfinder, the first in NASA's Discovery series of low-cost, highly focused
missions, was launched December 4, with the goal of placing a lander and the small
(11.S-kilogram) Sojourner rover on the Martian surface on July 4,1997.

At the end of 1996, both spacecraft were functioning nearly flawlessly, although one of
Surveyor's two solar panels failed to deploy fully. Still, mission engineers concluded that
this will not seriously affect the spacecraft's performance during the cruise and science
portions of the mission, nor will it impair the spacecraft's ability to aerobrake into its mapping orbit. Surveyor conducted a perfect trajectory-correction maneuver on November 21;
a few days later, all six of its scientific instruments were powered up for the first time after
launch, and the spacecraft camera took a series of test images of Earth and the Moon.

Pathfinder also performed well at the outset of its seven-month, SOO-million-kilometer

cruise, which will deliver it to Mars about two months earlier than Surveyor despite the
later launch. Minor problems with Pathfinder's Sun sensor, which helps to orient the craft
in space, were resolved quickly, and Pathfinder and its rover passenger, Sojourner, were
fully checked out for a successful cruise to Mars.

A New Exploration Strategy

Mars Global Surveyor and Mars Pathfinder are the first missions in a decade-long attempt
to investigate the evolution of Mars and determine whether or not the planet has, or once
had, conditions suitable for life. Besides searching for evidence of past life, these missions
will examine the Martian climate and its implications for Earth's past and future climates;
they will also explore the planet's geology and look for any resources that might support
astronaut missions.

A major focus of these and subsequent missions will be the history and possible presence of
water, since water is not only an essential requirement for life, but also plays a key role in
climatic processes and would be an essential resource for human explorers.

'.

. ..

,'::

...

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~,

-...
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,:. .... : -.:i- . -..-:'

....

,,'-"'

Follow-on explorations are to culminate early In the next century with the return to Earth, via
a robotic spacecraft, of Martian soli and rock samples Leading up to that climactIc miSSion,
two spacecraft -

a lander and an orbiter -

wIll be dispatched to Mars whenever It moves

Into a favorable posItIon relatIve to Earth This alignment occurs about every 26 months, with
opportunities In 1998-1999, 2001, 2003 and 2005
These mISSions reflect the Laboratory's commitment to NASA's "faster, better, cheaper" philosophy Mars Pathfinder was challenged to meet a start-to-Iaunch cycle of Just three years with a
development cost cap of

S150 million (In fiscal 1992 dollars). and It did so Mars Global Surveyor

cost even less to develop, oWing to the use of spare and duplicate parts from the 1993 Mars Observer project

As stili another cost-control measure, JPL established a Single Mars Surveyor Operations Project
office In March The Mars Global Surveyor and all subsequent Mars Surveyor mISSions Will be
carried out by this six-person unit (Project Manager, Flight Operations Manager, SCience Systems
Manager, Support and Development Manager, Project Engineer, Project SCientist) Instead of a
separate operations team for each mission ThiS consolidated team WIll use a set of baSIC processes and procedures to run these miSSions

some concurrently

and so keep Mars opera-

tIons costs under an annual cost cap of $20 million

In a parallel move, the Laboratory announced the formation of the Mars Exploration DIrectorate
In May to coordinate the planning and execution of all JPL miSSions to the planet The change
recognizes the centrality of Mars exploration In NASA's planning for the next century, for as the
agency's lead center for robotiC planetary exploration, JPL will playa SIgnifICant part In developing a coheSive, effective Mars program

Mars Global Surveyor

DUring early 1996, thiS spacecraft underwent final assembly and testing at the Denver, Colorado, plant of JPL's industrial partner, Lockheed Martin Astronautics Corporation WIth the last
of ItS sCIentifIC Instruments delivered and Installed In the spring, the 1,060-kllogram spacecraft
ran through Integrated systems and environmental testing and was shipped to the Kennedy
Space Center at Cape Canaveral, FlOrida, In August FollOWing further tests, the installation of
batteries and insulation and the loading of propellants In ItS propulSion module, the spacecraft
was mated to ItS solid-propellant, upper-stage rocket and the entire assembly was hOisted atop
the Delta launch vehicle In late October The launch that followed on November 7 was flawless
Mars Global Surveyor will generate a global portrait of Mars, giVing SCientists their first extensIve record of the nature and behaVior of the Martian surface, atmosphere and interior In polar
orbit, some 360 kilometers above the surface, the spacecraft will Circle Mars every two hours,
covering the entire planet every seven days Its orbital camera, built by Malin Space SCience
Systems of San DIego, California, will produce a dally Wide-angie Image of the entire planet,
Similar to weather photographs of Earth shown on nightly teleVISion newscasts, and narrowangle Images of selected areas The narrow-angle Imaging WIll be able to resolve objects as
small as 1 5 meters across -

a 100-fold Improvement over most of the Viking pictures of Mars

Mars Global Surveyor's other Instruments are expected to be Just as productive These instruments Include a laser altimeter to measure the Martian topography, with Its huge volcanIC mountains and deep chasms, with great accuracy, a thermal emission spectrometer to
look for the characteristic Infrared signatures of different minerai types (particularly clays
containing carbonate compounds, since these could be eVidence of anCient Martian shorelines) In patches as small as 9 square kilometers, as well as studYing the clouds and weather
In the planet's atmosphere, and a magnetometer that may Yield useful information about
Mars' interior structure and insight Into the history of the geophysical forces that shaped
the planet An analysIs of Surveyor's radio Signals to Earth will reveal the precise shape of
the planet and structure of Its atmosphere
In addition to ItS sCientifiC miSSion, the spacecraft will further test the fuel-saving aerobraking technique pioneered by the Magellan spacecraft at Venus In 1994 Aerobraklng
reduces the amount of fuel a spacecraft reqUires for trajectory correction, and thiS translates Into a valuable reduction In ItS weight at launch
ArriVing at Mars In September 1991, Surveyor will enter an elliptICal path around the
planet, dipping Into the top of the Martian atmosphere at the lowest pOint In each orbit
Over the next five months or so, thiS atmospheriC drag will slow the spacecraft, bringing
ItS orbit to the deSired near-circular shape for mapping, to begin In March 1998 The
miSSion IS expected to last a full Martian year -

about 681 Earth days

Pathfinder
One of Pathfinder's major goals IS to demonstrate an unconventional entry and landing
approach The spacecraft will dive directly Into the Martian atmosphere, with Its aeroshell
absorbing the heat of entry as well as slOWing the spacecraft's velocity from 1,500 meters
per second to about 400 meters per second An 8-meter-dlameter parachute will be deployed between 5 and 11 kilometers above the surface to further slow the spacecraft to
about 65 meters per second, three small retrorockets will help In deceleratIOn and will
carry the backshell and parachute away from the landing area Pathfinder will land encased In three shock-absorbing air bags. each apprOXimately 5 2 meters across
After a year of rigorous testing of Pathfinder's landing components. the first half of 1996
was devoted to environmental tests In which the frigid conditions of the Martian surface
were Simulated. and engineering tests of various power, electrical. telecommunications
and data-handling systems These tests were earned out at JPL, where the Pathfinder
lander and rover were built, and were completed several weeks ahead of schedule, thereafter, the lander and rover were shipped separately to Cape Canaveral, In mid and late
August. respectively
In FlOrida, launch teams spent three months on final integration. testing and preparation
for flight -

securing the rover to one of the lander's four petals, installing the protective

aeroshell and attaching the parachute The assembled entry vehicle, cruise stage and

upper-stage booster were mated to the Delta II rocket on November 21, and launch took
place on December 4, the third day of the launch window
Pathfinder will land at Its target site, an ancient basin called Ares ValliS, In the early hours
of Martian morning on July 4, 1997 Cushioned inside ItS voluminOUS air bags, Pathfinder
could bounce along the surface for a kilometer or more before coming to a halt Over the
next three hours, the craft will deflate and retract the air bags, stand Itself upright and
unfold Its petals to uncover SOjourner Daylight Will awaken the tinY solar-powered rover,
and It will rise from Its stowed configuration to Its full height of 30 centimeters and roll
down a ramp onto the Martian surface
Making Its way at a snail-like speed of 40 centimeters per minute across the floor of Ares
ValliS, a flood plain believed to contain a Wide variety of rocks, SOjourner will explore the
surface Independently for a minimum of some seven sols, or Martian days (each slightly
longer than an Earth day), relYing on the lander for communication with Earth The rover
Will carry an alpha proton X-ray spectrometer (provided by the Max Planck Institute of
Chemistry and the University of Chicago) to examine the composition of rocks and

5011,

as well as a stereo teleVISion system that will enable It to navigate around obstacles and
to peer close up at Interesting surface features
The nominal mission lifetime of the lander Itself IS expected to be about 30 sols, during
which time It will conduct investigations with a stereo multlcolor Imager prOVided by the
University of Arizona, with contributions from the Lockheed Martin Group, Max Planck Institute of Aeronomy and Technical University of Braunschweig (these last two In Germany)
and the 0rsted Laboratory of the Niels Bohr Institute In Copenhagen, Denmark Mounted
atop an extendible 1 5-meter mast, thiS Imaging system Will look out upon the Ares ValliS
Site, making panoramIC views of the landing area as well as follOWing SOjourner's progress
as It moves about the area An atmospheric structure Instrument-meteorology package,
developed by JPL with help from San Jose State UniverSity, Will record the temperatures,
pressures, Wind speeds and Wind directions at the site

Russia's Mars '96

The two U S miSSions

Mars Global Surveyor and Mars Pathfinder

bracketed the No-

vember 16 launch of Mars '96, a RUSSian spacecraft carrying 12 Instruments, including a

JPL-bullt SOil and atmospheric chemistry experiment named MOx Unfortunately, the Russian spacecraft plunged Into the PaCifIC Ocean a day later, before It could transfer onto
an Interplanetary trajectory The loss was a blow to sCience because the orbiter, With
objectives Similar to those of Mars Global Surveyor but also deSigned to characterize the
uppermost atmosphere and ItS interactions With the solar Wind, was to have deployed
two landers and two

5011

penetrators to the Martian surface

A replacement MOx or similar experiment will be given high priority for inclusion on a
future miSSion, because of the Importance of the surface chemistry to an overall understanding of the Martian environment MOx would have picked up where the two Viking
landers left off

In

the mld-1970s by Investigating the effects of a strong oXidiZing agent

In

the soli, whose presence was Inferred from the findings of 20 years ago In their search for
past or present life on Mars, SCientists will look for traces of organic molecules In the sOil
But they must first understand how these compounds, If any, would be destroyed on or
near the surface, so that they will know how deep to dig to reach untouched material

Mars '98 Missions

JPL engineers and SCientists continued work on two follow-on Mars miSSions In 1996, with
an eye toward the next launch opportunity

In

late 1998-early 1999 Those two miSSions,

the Mars '98 Surveyor orbiter and Mars '98 Surveyor lander, will continue the current
NASA-JPL engineering trend In that they will weigh only half as much as their 1996 counterparts and yet their sensors and onboard systems will be signifICantly advanced
The Mars '98 orbiter will carry an Improved

The Mars '98 lander will touch down

in the southern polar region, taking
pictures as it slowly descends to the surface

Imaging system -

the Mars color Imager -

weighing only a little more than 1 kilogram

(compared to the 21-kllogram mass of the
Mars Global Surveyor camera), and a pres-

sure-modulated Infrared radiometer, an Instrument that will make very detailed vertical
profiles of the Martian atmosphere, looking at clouds, dust hazes, water vapor, ozone
distribution, hlgh- and low-pressure cells, fronts, dust levels and Jet streams, among other
phenomena It will also examine the radiative balance of the reddish surface
The Mars '98 lander, to be launched a month after the Mars '98 orbiter, will be targeted
on a site around 75 to 80 degrees south latitude This spacecraft will also carry a lightweight camera -

the Mars descent Imager -

that should send back exciting Images as It

slowly descends under a parachute to the Martian surface

The lander will have a robotIC arm, Imaging cameras (including one on the end of the arm),
a sUite of sCience Instruments known as the Mars volatiles and climate surveyor (MVACS)
package, developed by JPL and the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), and an
upward-looking "dar (lIght detection and ranging), built by the Space Research Institute
(IK!) of the RUSSian Academy of SCiences The robotic arm will explore sOil types and minerai composition at the site by digging trenches to look for indICations of annually deposIted layers, since thiS could prOVide inSights Into the climatIC cycles of Mars
The Instruments will also search for near-surface ICe and characterize phySICal processes
Involved In the seasonal cycles of water, carbon diOXide and dust on Mars Winds, temperatures, pressures, humidity levels, Ice fogs, frost or snow and surface ICe formation are
among the many properties of the polar region to be Identified and analyzed

Still another investigation will be attempted by a pair of Identical experiments, each

In

an

aeroshell about the size of a basketball carried piggyback on the lander These are to crash
onto the Martian surface at 200 meters per second and, upon Impact, separate Into parts
JOined by a flex cable The upper segment will remain on the surface, making some measurements of the Martian atmosphere and serving as a communICations relay to the Mars '98
orbiter, while Its soda can-size mICroprobe should penetrate the soli to a depth of up to
2 meters
Sensors In the mlCroprobes will look for any water ICe

In

the Martian subsurface, an Impor-

tant clue to the puzzle of whether life eXists, or ever eXisted, on Mars The tinY sCience stations will also measure soli temperature and monitor local Martian weather, passing their
findings up through the flex cable to the surface segment for transmiSSion up to the orbiter
and from the orbiter back to Earth
Both Mars '98 spacecraft will be built by Lockheed Martin Astronautics and are expected
to benefit from the company's experience

In

manufacturing the Mars Globa I Surveyor The

weight reductions achieved will allow the use of a new launch vehicle -

the Med-Llte/

Delta 7425, about half the size of the Delta II launchers that camed the 1996 missions aloft

Future Rovers
In December, JPL engineers successfully completed three days of navigational tests of a prototype next-generation Mars rover, dubbed Rocky 7 (because It IS the seventh
these machines), on a dry lake bed

In

In

a series of

the California desert that served as a simulacrum of

the rubble-strewn Martian surface The 15-kllogram rover, developed and operated by JPL,
should be able to cover much greater distances than SOjourner
It will also employ such advanced technology as a robotic arm, with whICh It can dig Into
the Martian soli, and a stereo Imaging system at the end of a 1 4-meter mast The mast has
three degrees of freedom so as to allow the Imaging system to take panoramic Views of the
areas the rover VISitS, to "reach out and touch" rocks or other features that the rover Itself
cannot get close to and Inspect
While SOjourner IS to be semiautonomous In ItS operation on Mars (mission controllers at
JPL Will choose a rock for It to examine and the rover then will determine how to get to It),
advanced rovers like Rocky 7 will be programmed with hazard-avoidance software and information on speCified location pOints and targets, so that they can function with little or
no human control Autonomous rovers that can travel long distances, conduct

In

Situ studies

of soli and rock and gather samples for return to Earth are central to the goals of the
10-year Mars exploration program

MISSIONS

iTl1 e lar!test and

the Cassi "i m ' ssion

Saturn cont in ed its progress t ow ard a planned October 1997 launch

atop a TItan IV Centau r r o cket. T e mi sSii on, a joint effort of NASA, the European Space

Agenc.y (E'SA) and the

ge

',(1

Spa z.iale LtaJiana (ASI }, is,similar in concept to Galileo and

will explore the Saturnian system for four years, after a seven-year cruise to get there .

Saturn -

a gas giant, like Jupiter -

is, in effect, another miniature solar system . Cassini's

27 scientific experiments will examine the planet's atmosphere and interior, its spectacular
system of rings , its 18 (at least) highly varied icy moons and its huge magnetosphere .

Shortly before its arrival at Saturn in July 2004, Cassini will fly past Titan , the planet ' s largest moon, and send an instrumented probe -

called Huygens, after Titan's discoverer, the

17th-century Dutch astronomer Christiaan Huygens -

through the satellite's nitrogen-rich

atmosphere to its shrouded surface. The complex organic chemistry of Titan Ganymede, roughly the size of the planet Mercury -

like Jupiter's

appears similar to conditions on

primitive Earth and could provide clues about how life formed on our planet .

A key scientific payload aboard Cassini is its imaging r adar. Peering through Titan's atmospheric haze, it will create photograph-like images that should reveal if oceans exist on
Titan, and, if so, their distribution, as well as the geologic features and topography of this
moon's solid surface. The microwave radar will also acquire data on other Saturnian targets
such as the ring system and the icy satellites.

Another Cassini instrument, provided by the Applied Physics Laboratory at Johns Hopkins
University, will carry out the first imaging of a planetary magnetic field . Indeed , advanced
technology throughout the spacecraft will set new standards for deep-space missions .
Solid-state recorders, powerful computer chips, gyroscopes with no moving parts and solidstate power switches are among Cassini's many technological innovations .

The mission achieved several milestones in 1996 . Among them were the delivery of scientific instruments starting in February, the arrival of the propulsion module subsystem in
August and the mating of the engineering model of the Huygens probe with the orbiter
flight model in October, thus completing the assembly of the spacecraft ' s major components for the first time .

The spacecraft and Its various subsystems underwent testing at JPl throughout the year
under condItIons sImulating the vIbrational and thermal stresses of launch and interplanetary travel At the same time, teams were busy readYing ground systems and preparing
for miSSIon operations, including the development of sequences for compatIbility testing
between Cassin I and the Deep Space Network Assembly and testing will continue at JPl
through mld-1997, at which time the spacecraft Will be shipped to Cape Canaveral for final
launch preparatIons
Since early 1995, JPL has had responsIbility for overall Casslnl program managementspacecraft, SCience, operations and launch vehicle Throughout the miSSion, costs are to be
contained and effiCiency enhanced by streamlined operations, including the use of simplified organizational groups to make decIsions The program finished the year on schedule
and within budget, earning high marks In Its thIrd annual revIew by a team of outside
evaluators

New Millennium
CaSSlnl IS the last of the large flagshIp projects -

Viking, Voyager and Gailleo -

that have

added so much to our knowledge of the Solar System while advanCing the state of the art
In space exploration WIth Its launch, the Saturn-bound omnIbus WIll pass the torch to a
new generation of spacecraft -

mISSIons that hold as much potentIal for dellverrng revolu-

tionary sCIence and engineering as did theIr predecessors, whIle adhering to NASA's new
"faster, better, chea per" ph r1osophy
Much of the promIse of thiS next generation IS to be found

In

the JPL-managed New MII-

lennrum program Chief among the program's SIgnificant achIevements during the year
were the start-ups of the Mars microprobe effort and an Earth-orbiting proJect, and the
continuing progress of the program's first miSSIon, an asteroid-comet flyby, toward launch
In the summer of 1998
The New Millennium program was
Inaugurated

In

the fall of 1995 with

the goal of validating the advanced

technologies, sCIentIfIc Instruments
and operations systems needed to

Ion propulsion. surfacepenetrating microprobes and miniaturized

subsystems are among the technologies
planned for flight testing

fulfIll NASA's VISion for 21st-century

Earth sCience and space sCience mIssions The program WIll develop a successIon of englneerrng flights to demonstrate critICal
technologies In space, so that future miSSIons can employ them without assuming the costs
and rrsks Inherent In their first use These flights will also collect meanrngful SCientifiC data
from a broad range of targets, as eVIdenced by the fIrst three announced mIssIons Space 1, Deep Space 2 and Earth Orbiter 1

Deep

Deep Space 1. The first New Millennium mission -

Deep Space 1 -

will rendezvous

In

July 1998 with asteroid McAuliffe (named In remembrance of schoolteacher Christa

McAuliffe, who was on board the fatal flight of Space Shuttle Challenger) and comet WestKohoutek-Ikemura Deep Space 1 will employ solar electric Ion propulSion, the first use of
this technology In Interplanetary space travel
Solar electric Ion propulSion converts sunlight gathered by solar panels Into electric power
and then uses that power to Ionize a gaseous fuel -

xenon, In this case The Ion propulSion

engine prOVides a small but lengthy thrust (about 90 mlcronewtons. roughly 1/50th of a
pound) Because It can run continuously for long stretches, the engine can accelerate a
spacecraft, initially very slowly, but over time to the very high speeds (35,000 kilometers
per hour) necessary to catch up to a comet
A prototype of the Ion engine began a nearly yearlong endurance test at JPL In April In
flight, the spacecraft's engine will be powered by more than 2,000 watts from large solar
arrays prOVided by the U S BallistiC MISSile Defense Organization
In addition to solar electriC propulSion, the miSSion will demonstrate a number of other
technologies

In particular. miniaturized components that will help keep total spacecraft

weight to only 100 kilograms The sCientifIC payload Will Include a 5-kllogram. miniaturized
sensor system that will perform the functions of spacecraft Instruments that would weigh
85 kilograms If uSing 1970s Voyager technology
In 1996, Deep Space 1 completed mlsslon- and system-deSign reviews With Spectrum
Astro Inc, of Gilbert, Arizona, JPL's primary industrial partner In thiS project

Deep Space 2. Two Mars mlcroprobes, to be flown on the Mars '98 lander, constitute the
Deep Space 2 miSSion If successful, the probes could validate an evolVing concept called
Hnetwork sCience"

the serial emplacement of seismIC and meteorological networks across

the landscape of a body such as Mars Networks would focus on a complex, dynamiC areaa planet's atmosphere or climate, or Its Internal structure -

enabling SCientists to extend

and deepen their knowledge about that planet Surface-penetrating mlcroprobes might
also be the most effective way of obtaining

5011

samples and making subsurface

measurements
Among the new technologies proposed for the Deep Space 2 mission are a lightweight,
Single-stage entry aeroshell. a miniature, programmable telecommunication subsystem. an
ultralow-temperature lithium battery, power microelectrOnics With mixed digital-analog
Integrated CirCUits, a mlCrocontrolier. and fleXible connections for system cabling

Earth Orbitmg 1. In April, NASA announced the selection of the first New Millennium
flight dedICated to the agency's MISSion to Planet Earth The Advanced Land Imager miSsion -

dubbed E01. for Earth Orbiting 1- will be launched In late 1998 and will carry a

lightweight sensor to produce high-resolutIOn Images, In both VISible and Infrared light.
of Earth's land surfaces

16

The mission will gather measurements consistent with data collected since 1972 by the
Landsat series of satellites, Information that has been a boon to farmers, foresters, geologiStS, economists, hydrologists, environmental researchers and city planners Like other
New Millennium miSSions, E01 will also flight test new technologies and designs -

In thiS

case, with the aim of developing less costly and more compact land-Imaging systems
The Advanced Land Imager IS to be seven times lighter than the current Landsat 5 multispectral Instrument and Will require only a seventh as much electrical power ThiS novel
Wide-field obserVing system Will Incorporate an advanced, high-resolution hyperspectral
Imaging "spectrometer on a chip

In

addition, the E01 Imaging system does

Technologies validated by New

Millennium flights will be infused into

the smaller, lighter spacecraft and

Earth orbiters of the 21st century

not require a scan mirror, Will be bUilt

around a lightweight Integrated Silicon
carbide structure and optical system,
and will feature an innovative Infllght
calibration system

The E01 project IS managed by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, In Greenbelt, Maryland The Advanced Land Imager will be developed from Instrument technologies proposed
by members of the New Millennium Integrated Product Development Teams The Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Lincoln Laboratory, a federally funded research and development center like jPL, Will expedite the transfer of the resulting new technology to the
commerCial sector
After 2000, technologies validated by New Millennium will allow frequent launches of
lightweight and less costly spacecraft to address sharply drawn SCIentifiC questions Such
miSSions will be able to use smaller launch vehicles as a result of the development of
miniaturized spacecraft and Instruments MISSion operations will be Similarly streamlined,
through the use of autonomous flight and ground systems
NASA's Integrated Product Development Teams -

With representatives from other govern-

ment agencies, the private sector and academia -

are responSible for developing and de-

livering the technologies necessary for validating miSSions The engineers and sCientists on
these teams will be Involved In all aspects of the New Millennium program, ranging from
IdentifYing and developing technologies to analYZing SCientifiC data returned by the varlous missions
The teams have created "road maps" setting development priorities In SIX Vital technology
areas -

autonomy, commUniCations, In SitU Instruments and mlCroelectromechanlcal sys-

tems, Instrument technologies and architectures, microelectronics and modular and multifunctional systems

Stardust
A Discovery-class mission -

part of a NASA program to launch many smaller missions with

focused sCience goals, fast turnaround times and costs under $183 million to buildStardust IS an ambitious endeavor to gather samples of cometary dust and return them to
Earth for analysIs It IS the second of three comet missions In which JPL IS playing a major
role, the others are NASA's New Millennium Deep Space 1 and the European Space Agency's
Rosetta mission The latter IS to rendezvous with comet Wirtanen In 2012, JPL will build a
tiny probe that will land on the comet's nucleus
Stardust completed ItS preliminary design review and proceeded on to the development
phase NASA IS committing nearly $118 million for Stardust development and an additional
$37 million for mission operations
After launch In February 1999, the 380-1<llogram spacecraft IS to loop tWice around the Sun,
gathering Interstellar dust particles before gOing on to comet Wild 2 for an encounter In
early 2004 Stardust will fly through the comet's extended coma, or tall, collecting dust and
other materials to be returned inside a l-meter-dlameter capsule that Will hurtle back to
Earth for a 2006 landing In Utah If successful, Stardust will become the first mission to
return material from a Solar System object other than the Moon
The miSSIon will employ a novel material known as aerogel (a spongellke silica compound,
the volume of which IS 99 percent empty space) to capture the speeding dust particles The
aerogel, In a grid-like plate mounted on the end of an extendible arm, Will be deployed
from the open capsule, capturing Interstellar dust on one SIde and cometary grains on the
other When the specks of dust collide With the aerogel, they Will slow down gradually,
eventually lodging In the material Because aerogel IS largely transparent, SCientists wtli be
able to trace the tracks made by the dust partICles

In

order to retrieve them, a technique

already tested In JPL-deslgned space shuttle experiments

As With other Discovery miSSions, Stardust IS the product of a collaboration among NASA,
Industry (Lockheed Martin) and academia (the prinCipal investigator IS Don Brownlee, University of Washington) JPL will manage the project
SCientists have long been faSCinated by comets, primitive bodies that may have been the
building blocks of the outer planets and are also thought to have been a Significant source
of the water and organic materials

In

the early atmosphere and oceans of Earth The investi-

gators expect the captured material to prOVide data that may resolve many long-standing
questions about planetary evolution

Pluto Express
Pluto, the only planet In the Solar System yet to be reconnoitered by an Interplanetary
spacecraft. could lose that distinction sometime In the next decade as JPL continues to
develop an innovative miSSion to Pluto and Its large moon, Charon
As the first "sclencecraft." Pluto Express will be built according to a new philosophy In
which the design of the spacecraft. Instruments and, most Importantly, miSSion operations
will be earned out concurrently by the Instrument builders and the spacecraft designers
and manufacturers
To Illustrate this philosophy, conSider the cameras to be flown on this miSSion Their focal
lengths would be determined In a way that would proVide the required spatial resolution
of features to be scanned on Pluto, while also taking Into account the Impact of those
chOices on all the other Instruments In terms of power. data rates. pOinting reqUirements,
thermal loading, etc ThiS approach IS essentially the Inverse of the customary one
wherein the spacecraft and each of many Instruments are deSigned separately, With deCIsions about specific measurements made after the spacecraft IS under construction -

or

sometimes en route to ItS destination

To minimize costs and risks, the Pluto miSSion will employ a pair of small, Identical spacecraft -

each equipped With an Integrated array of sensors to examine the planet's atmo-

sphere and surface, as well as Charon'S surface Among several flyby trajectories being
conSidered, the primary one IS to have the two Pluto-bound craft loop around Venus three
times, bUilding momentum With each passage, and then get a final gravitational boost at
Jupiter to the outer Solar System ThiS path would prOVide an opportunity to launch In
March 2001. With arrival at Pluto and Charon In 2013
Pluto, the smallest planet In the Solar System. has remained an enigma since Its discovery
by astronomer Clyde Tombaugh In 1930 Given ItS distance from the Sun and ItS size. It
continues to challenge planetary astronomers Images acquired by the Hubble Space Telescope and released In March were the first ever to show surface details of the planet
Encompassing nearly all of Pluto's surface. the Images showed It to be a complex obJect.
With more large-scale contrast than any other planet except Earth Significantly. the Images displayed almost a dozen distinctive albedo features, or provinces, none of whICh
have ever been seen before. and confirmed the previously Inferred presence of ICy-bright
polar caps
The recent confirmation of a vast swarm of obJects cometary bodies hundreds of kilometers across -

ranging from small particles to

orbiting In the Edgeworth-Kuiper Belt

Just beyond the planets raises the exciting pOSSibility of extending the Pluto Express mission for a flyby glimpse of one or two of those bodies An extended miSSion would allow
SCientists to compare the properties of Pluto and Charon With these objects

20

EARTH

The La bor

Planet Earth, a comprehensive

d life-forms from the all. pace that researchers can

piece togethe

r,UJLU lileLI.I. T("

""'VP

their complex interactions.

JPL scientists and engineers work closely with NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in seeking innovative means of applying advanced Space Age technology to this major NASA enterprise. Current JPL-Ied efforts -

such as the NASA Scatterometer, TOPEX/Poseidon and the

Space borne Imaging Radar flight series -

are providing new insights into large-scale envi-

ronmental processes . Data from these projects and from several instruments that JPL is
contributing to NASA's forthcoming series of Earth Observing System (EOS) satellites will
enable researchers not just to identify human-made changes in the global environment but
to learn more about Earth's origins and consider its possible future.

The NASA Scatterometer

A JPL-managed radar instrument designed to study global ocean surface winds was launched
into Earth orbit on August 16 aboard Japan's Advanced Earth Observing Satellite (ADEOS),
an ambitious three-year international climate research mission. The instrument, called the
NASA Scatterometer, or NSCAT, was developed and built at the Laboratory. From orbit,
NSCAT is making 190,000 measurements per day of the speed and direction of winds blowing just a few centimeters above the ocean surface, by beaming radar pulses to Earth and
measuring their natural reflection -

or "backscattering" (hence the instrument's name)-

by wind-driven ripples in ocean waves.

The surface winds directly affect the turbulent exchange of heat, moisture and greenhouse
gases between the oceans and the atmosphere. The sea-air exchanges, in turn, help to
determine regional weather patterns and shape global climate. Examining and characterizing this interface is critical to a better understanding of global warming, the EI Nino phenomenon and other aspects of Earth's dynamic systems.

Covering more than 90 percent of the globe's ice-free oceans every two days from an
altitude of 800 kilometers, NSCAT is providing more than 100 times the amount of ocean
wind information than can be derived from ship reports . And since NSCAT is a radar instrument, it is capable of gathering data day and night, regardless of weather conditions. The

Instrument's measurements of ocean-surface winds will be used In numencal models to help

weather forecasters more accurately predict the path and intensity of hurncanes, winter
storms and other weather systems that form over the oceans In addition, ships that transport goods and passengers across the oceans can use NSCAT data to select the safest and
most economical routes
The Instrument qUICkly proved Itself, with the release In October of the first radar Images
assembled from Its measurements The Images, from data gathered In September, showed
two typhoons In the northwest PaCIfIC Ocean -

"Violet," whICh struck the coast of Japan,

killing three people and causing extenSive property damage, and "Tom," which churned the
most heavily used sea lanes In the PaCIfIC
NSCAT measured Winds In the storms of about 100 kilometers per hour Preliminary analYSIS
of that first set of scatterometer data demonstrated that the Instrument's high resolution
can Improve the monitoring of severe storms, It also showed that repeated global coverage
prOVides a better description of atmospherIC Circulation over the oceans, a phenomenon not
adequately sampled until now
Although the scatterometer's primary function IS to study Winds over the oceans, an NSCAT
team member from Brigham Young University has developed a way of enhanCing the resolution of the Instrument's radar backscatter to take detailed looks at land and Ice surfaces as
well Images released In November detailed the extent of the AntarctIC ICe sheet and the
Amazon rain forest, prOViding valuable new views In both cases as well as demonstrating
the scatterometer's versatility

TOPEX/Poseidon
Four years Into ItS miSSion, the NASA-Centre National d'Etudes Spatlales TOPEX/Poseldon
satellite continued to deliver new, valuable data about Earth's oceans The miSSion's prrmary
goal IS to Improve understanding of how the oceans Circulate by measuring sea level relative to Earth's center -

that IS, measuring ocean topography (the "top" In TOPEX)

As the satellite orbits Earth, two of Its sUite of SIX Instruments -

altimeters -

bounce

radar pulses off the ocean surface and time the return Signals, thus measuring preCisely
the distance between satellite and sea surface From these and other data gathered by ItS
Instruments. sCientists can construct a global map of ocean topography every 10 days to
an accuracy of 4 centimeters
In April, TOPEX/Poseldon SCientists released data that challenged a fundamental oceanographiC theory about the speed of Rossby waves (named after Swedlsh-Amencan meteorologist Carl-Gustav Rossby, who first Identified them In the 19305) These large-scale, nearly
Imperceptible undulations, whICh stretch hundreds of miles from one crest to the next, carry
across the ocean a Umemory" of weather changes that have occurred at distant locations

The TOPEX/Poseldon measurements disclosed that these waves travel two to three times
faster at mid latitudes than SCientists had thought, a finding that will lead to the reVISion
of textbooks and Improved global weather forecasting
The findings from the satellite's US-supplied dual-frequency altimeter suggested that
Earth's sea surface had been rising about 1 millimeter annually for the prevIous two years
The measurements agree closely with Earth-based tide gauges and also with the slnglefrequency French altimeter (1 to 3 millimeters)
In any case, TOPEX/Poseldon, expected to exceed ItS original three-year mission lifetime by
four years, continues to provide the most precise measurements ever made of global average sea-level change The continuation of such measurements by the planned US-French
Jason-' miSSion, set for launch In 2000, IS considered essential to IdentifYing long-term
trends In sea levels and their relationship to climate change

Spaceborne Imaging Radar

The Space borne Imaging Radar (SIR) program, one of the more successful JPL efforts of the
space shuttle era, made some Important advances last year with the release of new results
from two 1994 shuttle flights, the announcement of a follow-on, JOint NASA-Department
of Defense shuttle mission and the start of a new, low-cost radar-mapping satellite
In March, SCientists announced the discovery -

from analysIs of Images taken In 1994 by

the Spaceborne Imaging Radar-ClX-band SynthetiC Aperture Radar (SIR-C/X-SAR) aboard

Space Shuttle Endeavour

of what appears to be a chain of three 12-kllometer-dlameter

craters In the Sahara desert In northern Chad In North Africa The craters are thought to
have been caused by the Impact of a fragmented ,- to 3-kllometer comet or asterOid some
360 million years ago The finding IS reminiscent of the fate of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9,
which broke up and slammed Into Jupiter In 1994
One of these craters was already known Aorounga The radar Images revealed faint traces
of two other Impact craters trailing off from the first, If confirmed by on-site inSpections,
these three craters would represent only the second chain of large Impact craters known
on Earth Similar chains have been found on Jupiter's moon Callisto
In another interesting find, announced In April, a SIR-C/X-SAR sCience team member from
the Chinese Academy of SCiences

In

Beijing used radar Images to locate and study two lost

sections of the Great Wall of China -

one built by the SUI Dynasty more than 1,000 years

ago and the other by the Mlng Dynasty about 600 years ago -

which had been eroded

and bUried by centuries of blOWing sand Although archeology was not an onglnal obJective of the SIR flight series, the radar data have proved useful for studies of such ancient
sites as Angkor In Cambodia, the Lost City of Ubar
western China

In

Oman and the Silk Road of north-

In July, NASA and the Defense Mapping Agency of the U S Department of Defense signed a
formal memorandum of understanding to develop and conduct the Shuttle Radar Topography MIssion (SRTM) The mission IS tentatively manifested for an 11-day flight In 2000 and
will collect three-dimensional measurements of nearly 80 percent of Earth's land surface to
an accuracy of better than 16 meters, the regions to be mapped are home to about 95 percent of the world's popu latlon
SRTM will employ the same radar Instrument used by the JOint U S -German-Itahan SIR-c/XSAR

In

1994, but engineers Will add a mast almost 60 meters long, two additional antennas

and Improved tracking and navigatIOnal deVices The mast, which resembles the truss structure developed for the internatIOnal space station, will extend Sideways from the orbiter's
cargo bay The two new antennas Will be mounted at the tiP of the mast and allow the system to acqUire stereo radar Images of Earth's surface uSing techniques successfully tested
during SIR-c/X-SAR's October 1994 fhght
Information produced by SRTM could have
a variety of potential commercial uses, such

New spaceborne radars will provide

high-resolution images for improved

as the development of more realistIc fhght

topographic maps, earthquake fault

simulators for pilot training, siting optimal

monitoring and commercial purposes

locations for cellular phone towers and Improved maps of wilderness recreation areas,
among others Topographic maps have been

generated from stereo pairs of photographs taken by high-altItude aircraft and satellites,
such optical systems, however, cannot penetrate the cloud cover that obscures so much of
Earth's surface at any given time In some tropical regions, the cloud cover IS Virtually constant and thus Significant portions of the globe have never been mapped

In

detail SRTM IS

expected to generate a topographical Image of Earth that IS 30 times more precise than
anything now eXisting
JPL and NASA embarked on the next stage
October start of LlghtSAR -

In

synthetiC aperture radar mapping With the

the Lightweight SynthetiC Aperture Radar miSSion ThiS pro-

posed satellite would prOVide high-resolution Images of Earth on a nearly continuous baSIS
It would also demonstrate that radar missions can be much less expensive (costs Will be
held to less than $150 million, Including launch vehicle), while stili prodUCing uniquely
valuable data for use In SCIentifiC research, commercial remote sensing and emergency
management

Potential commercial users Include federal and state governments, as well as companies
Involved In forestry, agriculture and the extraction of oil, gas and other natural resources
For their part, sCientists will use LlghtSAR data to measure surface deformation of earthquake faults, to monitor biomass change In deforestation studies and to map the extent of
floods and the regrowth of vegetation In those affected areas
JPL engineers are looking at ways to reduce the weight of spaceborne radar and obtain
Improved performance through lightweight structures and miniaturized electronics On
the management Side, JPL IS explonng new approaches to government and Industry teamIng and cost-sharing as a means of maximizing the private sector's Investment In LlghtSAR

Earth Observing System

JPL IS a major supplier of Instruments for the Earth ObserVing System (EOS), the cornerstone of NASA's MISSion to Planet Earth The program, managed by the Goddard Space
Flight Center, IS based on a fleet of orbiting platforms that, starting In 1998, will prOVide
continuous observations of global climate change

The first In the series IS EOS-AM1 -

the satellite IS deSignated "AM" because In ItS polar

orbit It will always be crossing the equator In the morning -to be launched

In

June 1998

It will carry aloft the JPL-bullt Multi-Angie Imaging Spectro-Radlometer and the US-Japan
Advanced Spaceborne Thermal EmiSSion and Reflection Radiometer
The former Instrument IS to measure how much sunlight IS scattered In different directions
under natural conditions -

by atmospheriC particles, the planet's surface and clouds

and

so help quantify the amount of solar energy heating Earth's surface and atmosphere These
data are expected to contribute significantly to studies of the effects of

JPL instruments will study Earth's

dynamic systems-the atmosphere,
climate and surface

land-use changes, air pollution and

volcanIC eruptiOns, as well as processes
such as desertification, deforestation
and soli erOSion

The latter Instrument, a collaboration between JPL and Japan's Ministry of International
Trade and Industry, Will create high-spatia I-resolution maps of surface feature temperatures, emlsslvltles, reflectance and elevation, from data gathered In 14 channels encompassing wavelength regions from the VISible through the thermal Infrared

EOS-PM1, the second platform In thiS program (called "PM" because It will overfly the
equator In the afternoon), IS to carry the AtmospheriC Infrared Sounder the Loral Corporation and managed by JPL

developed by

and five other Instruments Into polar orbit

In

2000 The Infrared sounder will collect observations both of the atmosphere and of

clouds, to help SCientists unravel the role of clouds

In

the greenhouse effect

Earthquake Research
In the fall, a consortium of sCientists from JPL and other institutions began enlarging a network of Global Positioning System receivers, called the Southern California Integrated GPS
Network, that continuously measures the movements of the Southern California crust This
Information, much of which IS to be gathered and analyzed with the help of local students,
will substantially aid attempts to forecast earthquakes In the Greater Los Angeles area

The project IS deSigned to track ever-so-sllght geologic strains and stresses In the faults
crisscrossing the landscape It relies on data from a constellation of 24 Earth-orbiting GPS
navigation satellites under the JOint aegis of the U S Defense and Transportation Departments Several of the satellites are acceSSible via GPS radiO receiver at any given time from
any pOint on the surface of the planet, the precise location of a GPS receiver on the
ground can be determined by coordinating their Signals The earthquake network, which
began

In

1990 with four GPS receivers as a prototype project funded by NASA, will grow to

250 receivers over the next three years, and Will mOnitor movements of Earth's crust as
small as 1 millimeter a year ThiS, It IS hoped, Will tell SCientists where strain IS building up
and will help

In

emergency preparedness and

In

planning measures, such as retrofitting key

structures like freeway overpasses

The network, grown to 40 GPS receivers by October 1996, demonstrated ItS potential usefulness by detecting very small motions

In

the crust In Southern California after the 1992

Landers and 1994 Northridge earthquakes The GPS measurements disclosed that the
Granada Hills Immediately to the north of the Northridge epicenter rose, In a "quiet SliP,

by about 16 centimeters as a result of that tremor

ThiS finding raises the pOSSIbility that tectonic stress may be partially relieved through
crustal deformation Instead of fault slippage If thiS IS true, the Southern California
region's overall seismiC hazard may have to be reevaluated downward The reasoning IS
that some fraction of the strain caused by the opposed movement of the PaCifiC and North
Amencan plates IS absorbed by thiS aseismIC motion In the crust, Instead of Simply being
transferred to other nearby fau It zones
In addition to pOSSIbly aiding earthquake forecasts, GPS data could be useful

In

character-

IZing damage follOWing a temblor Receivers placed on or near dams, bridges and buildings
would allow remote detection of probable structural damage Toward that end, the earthquake network IS collaborating With Los Angeles County In a pilot study of continuous GPS
mOnitoring of Pacoima Dam

QUE S T

FOR

ORIGINS

How did the Un iverse com e iAto bein g? How are galaxies and stars born? Are there planets
lil< e Ear.tJl 0 biting n earby stars? Might some form of life have arisen on any of these planet s>. Obta ining a sVI! ers to such ti m e-honored, fundamental questions is the goal of NASA's
e p r:.o-Qram's announcement in late 1995, followed by the August 1996
rev el ations of tantalizing signs of microbial life on meteorite ALH84001 and liquid water
on the Jovian moon Europa, has fostered a sense of urgency among scientists working in
this area at JPL and throughout the space science community.

The Origins program will combine a variety of space - and ground-based observing systems,
leading to the ultimate goal of a Terrestrial Planet Finder to be launched in 2010 . In the
near term, ambitious new missions are moving toward launch in the ne xt century, including
the JPL-managed Space Infrared Telescope Facility (SIRTF) and the Space Interferometry
Mission. These instruments will look farther into the Universe, and therefore deeper into
the early stages of its existence, than any observatories before them .

JPL is also working with other organizations in an effort to link the world ' s two largest
telescopes -

the Keck I and Keck II, on Mauna Kea, Hawaii -

to create a powerful ground-

based interferometer capable of detecting Jupiter-size planets around nearby stars . With
interferometry, a technology underpinning many of the Origins projects, the light gathered
by several widely separated mirrors is combined so that the mirrors perform as if they were
a single, much larger collecting surface -

for example , two 5- meter collecting surfaces

spaced 50 meters apart can duplicate the resolution of a telescope 50 meters in diameter.

The Space Infrared Telescope Facility

SIRTF is an astrophysics mission to explore the birth and evolution of the Universe. It will
collect infrared images and spectra of the birth of stars and galaxies; study objects ranging
from comets and asteroids to distant quasars, and search for planetary systems. SIRTF will
build on the results of the highly successful 1983 Infrared Astronomical Satellite, which was
also managed by JPL. The new observatory, set for launch in 2001 or 2002, will measure the
faint heat radiated by these celestial objects, using cryogenically cooled instruments to
keep its own heat from distorting the data.

The National Academy of SCiences has called the mission the highest-priority, major new
American astronomy undertaking SIRTF IS expected to offer a view of the early Universe
that predates even the youngest galaxies observed at optical wavelengths by the Hubble
Space Telescope
The project, which completed one phase (prelimInary analysIs of Its SCIentifiC objectives)
and entered a second (preliminary design) last year,

IS

another example of how the Labora-

tory's "faster, better, cheaper" approach can signifICantly reduce costs -

In this case, from

more than $2 billion to $450 million

One major cost-reduction step was to shift SIRTF from Earth orbit, as originally proposed,
to a cooler orbit around the Sun, trailing well behind Earth This allows project engineers
to cut the amount of cryogenic coolant to be used at launch and In orbit, thus achieVing
mass and cost savings Without saCrifiCing sCIentifiC capabilities
In keeping With the new method of operation, NASA and JPL chose to award the SIRTF contracts In three speclall2:ed areas, emplOYing the new concept of Integrated project teams
rather than relying on the traditional systems-contractor approach The three contracts
were awarded In June Lockheed Martin MIssiles & Space, of Sunnyvale, California, and
Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corporation, of Boulder. Colorado. were chosen to team
With JPL to deSign. develop, test and Integrate SIRTF Under the agreement, Ball Will deSign
and develop the cryogenIC telescope assembly, and Lockheed Martin will provide the SIRTF
spacecraft and under a separate contract will perform system-level Integration and testing
Plans call for carrying out SIRTF's I nltlal development at JPL. With representatives from
each of the contractor teams In reSidence from the early systems-definition period through
completion of the project's requirements review

Ground-Based Interferometry
NASA researchers also embarked on a project to use the giant tWin 10-meter telescopes of
the W M Keck Observatory, atop HawaII's Mauna Kea, as a Single, high-powered instrument to search for Jupiter-class planets around nearby stars The just-completed Keck II
Telescope was dedicated In May, at whICh time the NASA prOject was formally announced
The use of Interferometry. In which the two Keck telescopes will make concurrent observatiOns of the same object In space, will prOVide a dramatIC Increase In their indiVidual Ilghtgathering and resolution capabilities These studies are an essential preparation for the
coming space borne elements of the Origins program, enabling researchers to test the techniques on the ground before building large Interferometers In space In turn, the discovery
of Jupiter-class planets wJlI Identify prime locations for seeking out smaller, Earth-like
planets With the more sensitive spaceborne Instruments gOing on line In the next century
The two Keck telescopes, connected along a baseline of 85 meters, will be aSSisted by
four smaller "outrtgger" telescopes spread over an area not qUite the size of a football

field The resulting interferometric system three years

which should be operating within the next

will be capable of detecting regular perturbations In nearby stars presum-

ably caused by the gravitational Influence of orbiting planets NASA will provide a total
of $44 million for construction and $2 million a year for operating costs as part of a cooperative effort between the space agency, Caltech, JPL and the California Association for
Research In Astronomy (CARA) JPL IS managing the agency's participation In the Keck
Observatory for NASA's Office of Space SCience

Space-Based Interferometry
The Space Interferometry MISSion (SIM), now In the planning stages at JPL, Will define the
POSition of stars With an accuracy of a few millionths of an arc second, a measurement
more than 250 times as preCIse as that In the best-available star catalogs (and comparable
to the observation, from Earth's surface, of a person standing on the Moon and SWitching a
flashlight from hand to hand)
SIM will be launched Into Earth orbit early In the next decade, and will be the first space
mission With an optICal Interferometer as Its primary Instrument As With the Keck Interferometer, the system will map the wobbles of stars In their paths across the sky that prOVide indirect eVidence of orbiting planets -

wobbles

and ItS data should allow astronomers

to deduce the presence of planets as small as Earth

The spacecraft will also triangulate the positions of indiVidual stars In the Milky Way and
In some nearby galaXies, from these data, SCientists will be able to Infer more accurate diStances to other objects In the Universe
SIM IS seen as a technologICal stepping-stone to a larger JPL-managed Interferometer
dubbed the Terrestrial Planet Finder ThiS Instrument, With a baseline of between 75 and
, 00 meters, would be capable of detecting Earth-Size planets up to 50 light-years away,
and will also look for the chemICal signature of planets that might harbor life To ensure
maxim um senSitiVity, the craft Will be sent Into deep space

perhaps as far as the orbit of

Jupiter, where It Will escape the haze of glOWing dust In the Inner Solar System The Planet
Finder IS currently envIsioned as a sUite of four Infrared telescopes, each about 2 meters
across, mounted on a 75-meter truss, the telescopes would beam their light to a common
focus The Infrared light collected by each telescope Will be combined With that of the
others In such a way that the starlight WIll be rejected and only the emISSions from planets
Will be collected and analyzed

30

TO

S E R V E

THE

NATION

a federa lly fun d e d ~es earch and development center, JPL recognizes its obligation to
nce techl1lol'ogie s w ith in its charter and apply them on behalf of vital national interests .
Indeed, the Lab orat ory i s not just a world leader in robotic space exploration, but through
t b:e ye at -s

a s been i n t hce...f orefront in developing a variety of other technologies. To pro-

mote a steady stream of innovations, the Laboratory uses such programs as the Director's
Discretionary Fund to support selected staff proposals, covering a broad spectrum of scientific disciplines and technologies. Last year, the Fund NASA and $156,000 from other sponsors -

operating with $3 .5 million from

started 26 new research tasks and provided con-

tinuing funds for four ongoing tasks .

JPL's Technology and Applications Program (TAP) Directorate funds new research and
oversees JPL's technology transfer and commercialization activities. NASA recognized this
Directorate ' s key role with a $15-million increase in its budget for fiscal 1996, during a
period of overall decline in NASA funding. At the same time, reimbursable research and
development for non - NASA customers stabilized, representing about half of TAP's budget .

Technology Highlights
A space shuttle flight in May carried aloft two examples of TAP-sponsored research for
tests in the microgravity environment of Earth orbit : the Brilliant Eyes Sorption Cryocooler,
an instrument that can quickly cool sensors to near absolute zero; and the Inflatable
Antenna Experiment, a test structure intended as a prototype of future inflatable telescopes and other space structures . 50-called sorption coolers of the Brilliant Eyes type are
essentially vibration-free and can operate reliably and efficiently for more than 10 yearsall necessary qualities for use with infrared telescopes, which require cooling but must be
able to maintain precise pointing.

As an indicator of things to come, the Laboratory and its industrial partner, L'Garde, Inc.,
of Tustin , California, carried out one of the more interesting experiments in space : the
successful deployment of an inflatable structure -

a 14-meter-diameter antenna reflector

(made of aluminized Mylar) with tripod- l ike, 28-meter -long struts (of neoprene-coated
Kevlar).

Inflatable structures hold out the promise of significant cost savings for future missions
because of their low mass (this complete unit weighed Just 60 kilograms), low cost (jPL
engineers estimated that a traditional mechanical antenna would have run upwards of
$50 million, compared to about $1 million for this L'Garde unit) and small, stowed volume
(thiS antenna occupied the space of an ordinary kitchen table)
The unit was flown during a May space shuttle miSSion, In NASA Goddard Space Flight
Center's "Spartan" recoverable spacecraft Spartan is an omnibus vehicle that can accept a
Wide range of sCientific sensors and support systems, carned Into space In a space shuttle's
cargo bay, It

IS

released Into Earth orbit for a few days to two weeks and then recovered by

the shuttle crew for return to Earth and later reuse

In another success story, a TAP-funded demonstration of Global Positioning System applicatIOns software led qUickly to commercial and U S government licenSing agreements The
JPL system, which completed development In July, provides real-time, differential-positionIng data derived from the array of two dozen GPS Earth-orbiting satellites SATLOC Inc,
a commercial provider, signed a license to sell the software, With expected delivery of the
final version In early 1997, several other providers of Wide-area differential GPS data
worldWide were also In negotiations to license the system
Last summer, the Federal AViation Administration and ItS contractor, the Hughes Aircraft
Company, selected the JPL software for use In that federal agency's Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS), a CritICal component to safe commerCial airline operations Within the
United States The software will enable the Global Positioning System to meet the Federal
AViatIOn Administration navigation-performance requirements for domestic en route, terminal, nonpreclslon approach and preCISion approach phases of flight
Among key hardware technology developments In 1996 were two hand-held Infrared
cameras developed by JPL

In

partnership With Industry The cameras use highly senSitive,

quantum-well Infrared photodetectors, or QWIPs

arrays of detectors that are sensitive

to wavelengths from 8 to 12 micrometers, 20 times longer than the wavelengths of VISible

light and therefore conSiderably weaker Although not apparent to the naked eye or to
any human sensory systems, objects do give off heat at these long wavelengths, and It IS
thiS low energy that the QWIP cameras can detect
Developers foresee applICations In Situations wherever heat IS a factor

for example,

maintaining product quality control by detecting overheated parts or faulty welds on a

manufacturing line The cameras may also be useful

In

such fields as surveillance, night

VISion and medical Imaging The first camera, developed In collaboration With Amber, a
Raytheon company, was used by a Los Angeles teleVISion news crew In October to mOnitor
brush fires In Malibu, the camera could "see" through smoke and pinPOint Ilngen ng hot
spots A later camera, announced In December, IS four times lighter, five times smaller

In

volume and uses 10 times less power than the earlier model, It was developed by JPL and
Inframetncs, of Billerica, Massachusetts

The QWIP research originated In JPL's Center for Space Microelectronics Technology, the
first of a group of Laboratory-based RCenters of Excellence, which are basically sClencetechnology andl or sCience-engineering fields that are critical to fulfilling the JPL Strategic
Plan Other Centers of Excellence, either eXisting or soon to be established, Include Space
Interferometry, In Situ Exploration and Sample Return, Space MIsSion Architecture and
Design, Autonomous Advanced Spacecraft, Deep Space Navigation, Deep Space Communications, Active Microwave Remote Sensing, Optlcall Submllhmeterllnfrared Remote Sensing
and finally, Space MIssion Information and Computing Technology
Through these centers -

led by men and women with well-recognized technical expertise

and proven leadership abilities -

JPL Will meld the SCience, technology, engineering and

staff to carry out the challenging planetary, space sCience and Earth sCience missions of
the future

Commercial Technology Program

The Laboratory IS committed to sharing with American Industry the fruits of technology
developed for NASA and federally sponsored proJects by disseminating Information, distributing software, entering Into affiliatIOn agreements, funding smail-business Innovation
research, ISSUing patent licenses and promoting cooperative ventures
Information on available JPL technology IS set out In NASA Tech Briefs The Laboratory
produced 268 (37 5 percent) of the 714 Tech Briefs published at NASA field centers In 1996
Interested parties can request Technical Support Packages about any of these Items, last
year, JPL sent out nearly 33,000 such packages
The Laboratory's Technology Affiliates program provides Amencan firms with access to JPL
technological resources Any U S company with a technical problem can contact the Laboratory, describe the difficulty and ask for an evaluation If JPL determines that there IS
technology available and appropnate to the problem, It Will enter Into an agreement with
the firm Under this program of 1996 neers

In

In which more than 110 firms were participating at the end

the company funds the research and ItS employees work closely with JPL engi-

applYing the Laboratory's technology to the firm's needs

The Targeted Commercialization Office works with U S Industry to maXimize the transfer
and commercialization of JPL miSSion technologies through opportunities In growth and
emerging markets This office looks to the private sector as the maJor source of milliondollar-level funding for commerCial technology applications and IS developing programs
In remotely sensed Imagery, telecommUnications and health care
JPL's Technology Reporting and Communications Team submitted 187 new reports on Inven
tlons or technical innovations to NASA and concluded dozens of licenses for both the Laboratory and the California Institute of Technology

In

1996 Additionally, the U S Patent and

Trademark Office Issued numerous patents on inventions developed at JPL

In

1996

Through its Small Business Innovation Research program, the Laboratory encourages small
companies to develop promising "dual-use" technologies -

those that have both NASA and

commercial applications. The program, which typically receives close to 500 proposals each
year, awarded 69 such contracts in 1996, with a total value of $17 million.

Technology Cooperation Agreements are yet another vehicle for furthering technology to
the mutual benefit of NASA and industry. These collaborative ventures, in which no funds
are exchanged, allow private firms to participate in the early stages of research and development projects. The goal is to ensure that emerging technologies prove useful both to
government agencies and to commercial interests . In 1996, JPL and its technology partners
signed six new agreements; 26 other agreements were active during the year.

INSTITUTIONAL

ACTIVITIES

Change continued to be a ma j or goal for JPL in 1996, as the labo rato ry moved on seve ral
fronts to transform itself into a more flexible, respo sive, and cu to mer-focuse

org ani za -

tion. For the near future, JPL will have to steer a diff icu t CQurse thro ugh a ra pid ly chan ging
political, economic and international landscape -

a landsca pe in wHi ch the only! pre dictable

constant will be change itself . Only by reeng i neering to'

eet the.s.e new circums.tances will

the Laboratory succeed in advancing its long tradition of space exploration and technology
development on behalf of the nation.

The Laboratory has steadily progressed in its reengineering efforts from Phase A (preliminary analysis), with the establishment of a Total Quality Management initiative in 1992, to
Phase B (definition) with the completion of the JPL Strategic Plan in mid-1995 . JPL is now
engaged in Phases C and D (design and development), with five reengineering teams looking at major changes and the implementation of process-based management principles
throughout the Laboratory.

With all this activity, JPL is striving to become a process -oriented organization. "Process"
refers to a group of tasks that, taken together, create value -

and is concerned with the

ways that work gets done, rather than with organizational structure. Since most organizations have traditionally organized themselves around functions, a process orientation

requires a major shift In perspective from the vertical (hierarchical) to the hOrizontal (cutting across departments and functions, where the actual work of an organization IS carried
out) and from boss to customer For the process-oriented organization that JPL Intends to
become, the top priorities are "customer" and "results"

The Strategic Plan

The philosophICal foundation for the Laboratory's change initiatives can be found In the
Strategic Plan, a statement of JPL's VISion, miSSion, values and strategies It IS an essential
gUide to the Laboratory's work force as It strives for success In a new era of economic constraints, redefined national goals and revised priorities for the national space program
JPL's vIsion IS to expand the frontiers of space In order to enrich knowledge and benefit
humanity Its miSSion IS to carry out activities to fulfill that vIsion -

In

particular, to mount

challenging robotiC space ventures to explore the Solar System, the Universe and Earth,
while applYing the Laboratory's special capabilities to problems of national Importance
JPL's values -

the characteristiCS ItS workforce brings to ItS missions -

are openness (of

people and processes), integrity (of both the individual and the Institution), quality (a
commitment to excellence In everything done) and innovation (employee creativity)
The strategies are 10 actions that JPL has vowed to take to better serve customer needs
Focus SCience, technology and engineering resources to carry out those missions that no
other organization can carry out

Establish a presence throughout the Solar System and enhance understanding of Earth's
environment and the Universe through small, frequent, low-cost missions
Combine JPL's strengths With those of other NASA field centers, other federal laboratOries, Industry, academia and other nations to build robotiC space sCience and EarthobserVing miSSions of the highest value
Broaden and deepen the Laboratory's capabilities to execute successful robotiC space
sCience and Earth-observing programs
Act as a sCientific and technological bridge between NASA and other federal agencies to
help the latter achieve Important national goals

Routinely use the best business practices In carrying out the Laboratory's work and continually verify their effectiveness and appropriateness

 Infuse new technologies Into flight and ground systems and capture the benefits for the
commercial sector through technology transfer programs
Inspire the public With the wonder of space sCience and enhance sCience and engineering
education
Promote individual and organizational excellence through employee training and growth
and by creating a work environment based on mutual trust and respect
Contribute to the nation as a sOCIally responsible organization

Reengineering Teams
Four reenglneerlng teams were set up In the prevIous year to develop and Implement
fundamental Improvements to the processes JPL uses to make rules, nurture and assign
people, develop products and deliver administrative support The teams' successes In the
first full year of operation served both to validate the StrategIC Plan and to underscore
JPL's commitment to carrying It out, It also inspired the formation of a fifth team (the
Enterprise Information System Project), In September 1996, to set up a state-of-the-art
information system to support and enable all Laboratory work By year's end, two of the
teams -

concerned chiefly With development -

were on schedule to finish their work by

the end of fiscal 1997, the other three are aiming for completion dates In 1998
The Define and Maintain the Institutional Environment team was created to make JPL's
administrative rules simpler to access, easier to understand and less voluminous In ItS
first year, the team transferred all paper-based administrative rules to an electronIC format, so that JPL no longer needs to print Its 14 admrnlstratlve manuals

10

bulky 3-rlng

brnders, developed the Institutional EnVironment NaVigator program for accessing the
rules electronically, spearheaded efforts to translate all rules rnto processes, and held
several Laboratory-wide training and communications events, Includrng a roundup and
recycling of 2 5 tons of the old paper manuals The team IS expected to complete Its work
by the fa II of 1997
The focus of the Growth and ASSignment of Our People team

IS

to Improve opportunities

for employees' career growth, advancement and job rotation, and to better the Laboratory's projections of staffing needs DUring ItS first year, the team formed the Education
and Trarnlng PrOViders Consortium (In partnership With the Laboratory's ProfeSSIOnal Development staff) to establish an onlrne rnteractlve college resource center and an online
unified course catalog, created an Informal mentorlng program and worked to promote
the mentoflng concept across the Laboratory, and developed and tested prototype online
bUSiness operations and tools to forecast the kinds of skills that will be needed

10

the

future ThiS team, too, expects to wrap up Its work by next year, and was Instrumental In
JPL's deCISion to establish a Human Resources Directorate

,,
, I

More focused on work than workers, the Develop New Products team IS seeking ways to
cut the development time of products In half and to reduce average project development

,I

!:

costs by 30 percent Among other first-year accomplishments, the team reviewed JPL (and
other) space misSions and so Identified early Simulations and modeling as two key ways to
bring the design phase of new products along faster and more effiCiently The team also
worked with JPL's technical divIsions to standardize a design process for future proJects,
and designed and built an Integrated mission testbed faCility with connections to the Deep
Space Network and the Multlmlsslon Ground Systems Office The team, now operating as
an Implementation project, IS expected to continue ItS work through early 1998
:1

The New Business Solutions ProJect, which evolved from the original Team Elan, IS charged
with reenglneerrng JPL's business systems and administrative processes The team Identified
finance, acquIsition and human resources as the most Important business processes to be
reenglneered, and set out to select a vendor to prOVide the best off-the-shelf, online bUsIness system for the Laboratory's needs In those areas
In August, after separate week-long software-system demonstrations by three prospective
vendors, team leaders selected the Oracle Corporation as the winning company The New
Business Solutions Project IS expected to complete Its work on Installing the Oracle-based
system and realigning JPL business practices In Aprrl 1998
The fifth reenglneerrng effort, the Enterprrse Information System ProJect, Will have turned
the Laboratory's computer Infrastructure Into a user-frrendly, secure, state-of-the-art,
always-on-duty system by September 1998 As envIsioned, the new system Will allow users
to log on from anywhere In the world at any time and access fries from, or share them
With, any other valid user The system Will offer Improved electroniC mall, replaCing a
costly hodgepodge of sometimes incompatible systems. and also allow users to search all
73,000 Internet and Intranet pages at JPL

Outsourcing
As part of Its reenglneerlng efforts. the Laboratory IS reviewing all ItS actiVities to Identify
that work to be retained In-house and that which can be "outsourced" to Industry and
commercial suppliers Outsourcing Will enable JPL to achieve SignifICant workforce reductions -

as mandated by NASA's "zero-base" review of 1995 -

from 6.100 employees and

contractors In fiscal 1997 and 5.400 In fiscal 1998 to approximately 4,780 In fiscal 2000 The
Increased reliance on subcontracting and outsourcing IS also

In

keeping With JPL's strategy

of focusing Its SCience, technology and englneerrng resources on those miSSions that no
other organization can carry out

AND

AWARDS

Du rin g r996 , a nym ber of special honors, NASA Honor Awards and Laboratory honors were
presented to jp

pe rs on nel in recognition of their exceptional achievements and service.

Sped al ho nors were awar ded to individuals and to groups by a variety of organizations
and professional so cieties . The annual NASA Honor Awards are presented to JPL personnel
by NASA in recognition of outstanding individual or group achievements. Finally, through
special appo i ntments, Caltech Campus and the Laboratory recognize the accomplishments
of individuals and promote the exchange of information in areas of research .

Special Honors

NASA Honor Awards

Aerospace Laurels 1996, Aviation Week and

Distinguished Service Medal

Space Technology

William J. O' Neil

John R. Casani and William J. O'Neil

Outstanding Leadership Medal

Aerospace Power Systems Award, American

Neal E. Ausman, Jr.

James A . Evans*

Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics

Robert C. Barry

Joseph A. Gleason

Vincent C. Truscello

E. Kane Casani

Ralph J. Reichert

Leslie J. Deutsch

"po sthumously awarded

Dwight D . Eisenhower Award for Excellence,

U.S. Small Business Administration

Exceptional Achievement Medal

Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Olen Adams

Saturnino Lopez

Arthur V. Amador

Jan M. Ludwinski

Elected Fellow, Institute of Electrical and

Electronics Engineers
Fuk K. Li

Robert Angelino

Kevin P. Maguire

Arturo Avila

Howard P. Marderness

Todd Barber

Elihu H. McMahon

International von Karman Wings Award of

David M . Bates

Robert M. Metzger

Excellence

Gilbert A. Clark

Jerry Millard

Edward C. Stone

Cynthia L. Compton

Edward A. Miller

NASA Software of the Year Award

Arvid P. Croonquist

Alex Moncada

Allan S. Jacobson

Louis A. D' Amario

Arthur J. Murphy, Jr.

Kauser S. Dar

Tracey A . Neilson

National Safety Council Award for

James K. Erickson

Francis T. Nicholson

Injury Prevention

Charlayne J. Fliege

Allen Nikora

Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Eric Fossum

Sharon E. Okonek

Nordberg Medal, Committee on Space Research

Kenneth H. Friberg

Ma ry B. Oldham

Charles Elachi

Robert B. Gounley

Christopher L. Potts

Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists

and Engineers, U.S. Government
Andrea Donnellan and Elle n R. Stofan

Robert O. Green

Will iam G. Read

Gregory S. Harr ison

Joh n H . Reimer

Kathryn B. Hilbert

Dara Sabah i

Maynard G. Hine

Choon - Foo Shih

Jennie R. Johannesen

Robert Shishko

and Invention

Michael Robert Johnson

R. Wayne Sible

Gilbert A . Clark

William E. Kirho f er

Stephen M. Spohn

Wayne Kohl

William H. Spuck III

Rolex Award for Enterprise in Applied Science

William 1. Pecora Award, NASA and the

U.S. Department of the Interior
Crofton B. Farmer

Alexander S. Konopliv

Reid C. Thomas

Gary R. Kunstmann

Will i am C. Tibb itts

Hamid Kuri

Michael J. Tickner

Gregory R. LaBorde

Vallerie D. Wagner

Matthew R. Landano

Alison N. Wei sbin

Greg G. Levanas

Robert L. Wh ite

Gerald W. Lilienthal

M ic hael G. Wil son

Tom Loesch

Donald L. Young

ExceptIonal SCIentIfIc AchIevement Medal

lee-lueng Fu

JPl Adaptive Recognition Tool Development

Team

ExceptIonal Engineering Achievement Medal

Dennis V Byrnes

MaIn Electrical SubstatIon Replacement

PrOject Team

Darlush Dlvsalar
Siamak Forouhar
Sarath 0 Gunapala

Mars Surveyor ExploratIon Program

Procurement Team
Multlmlsslon Image Processing System
DeSIgn Team

Allan 5 Jacobson

ExceptIonal ServIce Medal

Edward J Adams
Anil K Agrawal
Ken Bartos
Stephen W Benskin
Jeff B Berner
Jeffrey J Cornish
Rebecca J Custer
Susan Foster de QUintana
Gloria C Gerhard
Gene l Goltz
Edward Greenberg
Fred Y Hadaegh
Jeanne M Holm
John A Hultberg
Wilham J Hurd
Edward H Kleckhefer
Alfonse F Klasclus
Esther C Knox
Richard W Kuberry
Mary F Kunstler
Beatrice C lathrop-Plno
PaulO Maker
Patnck Murphy

Ralph C Ouellet

Project Gahleo Team

Joon H Park
lynn M Patterson

Sky Image Cataloging and AnalysIs Tool Team

Robert Richter
Audrey V Rlethle

Small Disadvantaged BUSiness SubcontractIng

Team

James A Rooney

Spaceborne Imaging Radar-C Outreach Team

Wilham E Ruhland
Casper S Sagolan

Telescopes

Fred W Sanders
Carl G Sauer, Jr

In

Education Team

TOPEX/Poseldon MISSion OperatIons Team

Edward B Schneider
Samuel W Slrhn
Kenneth 5 Smith

Special Appointments

Clara Sneed
E Myles Standish, Jr
Jerry T Swanson
DaVid l Trowbridge
Ronald T Welch
Steven J Wells
Edward C Wong
John Zlpse*
"posthumously awarded

Group AchIevement Award

Active Pixel Sensor Technology Team
Airborne Vlslblellnfrared Imaging
Spectrometer Operations Team
Air OperatIons Group
ASTRO-2 Fhght Team
Bassett UnIfIed School DIstrict and
NASA/JPl Team
Cryo System Experiment Team

DIstinguIshed VISIting SCIentIst

KeVin C A Burke
Global stud,es of tectonics
Houston, Houston, Texas

UnIverSity of

Crofton B Farmer
Stratosphenc spectroscopy laboratory (Retired)

Jet PropulSion

James McWilliams
Oceanography-ocean Circulation modeling University of CalifornIa, los Angeles, CalifornIa
MarCia M Neugebauer
Space physICS - Jet PropulSIon laboratory
(Retired)
John B Rundle
Radar Interferometry - UnIversIty of
Colorado, Boulder, Colorado
Donald E Shemansky
Aerospace englneenng

UniversIty of

Southern Cahfornla, Los Angeles, California

Deep Space Network ATMnet Team

Deep Space Network S-Band Ultracone Team

Fredrtc W Taylor
Planetary atmosphere research Oxford, Oxford, England

Drop PhysIcs Module-2 Team

Senior Research SCIentIst

Deep Space Network Block V Receiver Team

DSS-24 34-meter Multlfrequency Beam

WaveguIde Antenna Team
DSS-27 ImplementatIon Team

UnIversIty of

Joseph M Ajello
UltraVIolet emIssIon spectroscopy

Global PositionIng System Atmospheric

Occultation DemonstratIon Team

Wilham A Imbrtale
SyntheSIS, analYSIS and deSign antennas

Global PositionIng System ReceIVer

Development Team

Stanley P Sander
ChemIcal kinetICS and atmospheriC sCience

HIgh-Performance Computing and

Communicat,ons Team

Homayoun Serajl
RobotICS

reflector

FINANCES

AND

PER SON N E L

JPL's annual budget for the fiscal year ending in September 1996 was $1.09 billion. Research
and development costs amounted to $1.06 billion; facilities construction costs accounted for
the remainder. Costs for NASA-funded and non-NASA-funded activities remained essentially
constant at $990 million and $70 million, respectively, from fiscal year 1995 to fiscal year
1996. The Laboratory's workforce decreased again during 1996, to 5,444 employees. The
workforce had been 5,692 in 1995 and 5,875 in 1994. The following charts show financial
and personnel statistics for the 1992-1966 period.

Total Cost
(Millions of Dollars)

o
1996

1995

1994

1993

1992

250

500

750

1000

NASA R&D

...................................................... 993

Non-NASA R&D

.. 70

NASA R&D

.................................................. 972

Non-NASA R&D

... 93

NASA R&D

...................................... .899

Non-NASA R&D

.... 121

NASA R&D

...................... ........... 856

Non-NASA R&D

.......... 216

NASA R&D

................................... 862

Non-NASA R&D

242

Fiscal Costs
(Millions of Dollars)

100

50

200

150

CaSSlnl Program

.............. 129

Mars Exploration Program

.... 114

Gahleo ProJect

................. 61

Flight ProJects

...... 79

New Millennium Program

.. 28

Fhght Instruments

.................................................... 169

Space and Earth Science

................. 61

Technology and Applications

................. 154

Deep Space Network

....................................................... 180

Other Telecommunications I MIssion Operations

................ 58

Other Research I Development

....... 30

Construction of Facilities

..... 25

Total Personnel

1996

1995

1994

1993

1992

Engineers and SCientists

3,522

3,643

3,746

3,850

3,834

Support Personnel

1,922

2,049

2,129

2,320

2,367

Consulting Members
R. Stanton Avery
Chairman Emeritus, Board of Trustees,
California Institute of Technology;
Founder Chairman Emeritus, Avery
Dennison Corporation
Ruben F. Mettler

Caltech Board of Trustees Committee

Chairman Emeritus, Board of Trustees ,

California Institute of Technology;
Retired Chairman and CEO, TRW, Inc.
Mary L. Scranton
Nonprofit Consultant

Robert Anderson

Advisory Members

Chairman Emeritus, Rockwell International

Harold Brown

Thomas W. Anderson

Counselor, Center for Strategic and

John R. Curry

International Studies (CSIS)

Steven E. Koonin
Walter Burke
President, Sherman Fairchild Foundation, Inc.
Mildred S. Dresselhaus

Edward C. Stone
Harry M. Yohalem

Institute Professor of Electrical Engineering

and Physics, Massachusetts Institute of
Technology
Thomas E. Everhart

Executive Council

(Ex Officio)
President, California Institute of Technology
Shirley M . Hufstedler
Senior OF Counsel , Morrison & Foerster
Bobby R. Inman (Vice Chair)
Private Investor
Eli S. Jacobs
E. S. Jacobs & Company

Edward C. Stone
Director
Larry N. Dumas
Deputy Director
Moustafa T. Chahine
Chief Scient ist
Kirk M . Dawson

Ralph Landau

Associate Director

Li stowel , Inc.

John R. Casani

Yuan T. Lee

Chief Engineer, Office of Engineering

Nobel Laureate and Pre sident, Academia Sinica

and Mission Assurance

Gordon E. Moore (Ex Officio)

Charles Elachi

Chairman , Board of Trustees, California

Director, Space and Earth Science

Institute of Technology; Chairman,

Intel Corporation

Programs Directorate
R. Rhoads Stephenson

Pamela B. Pesenti

Acting Director, Technology and

Trustee, Santa Barbara Museum of

Applications Programs Directorate

Natural H i story
Stanley R. Rawn, Jr.
Private Investor
Walter L. Weisman
Former Chairman and CEO, American Medical
International, Inc.
Albert D. Wheelon (Chair)
Chairman and CEO (Retired). Hughes
Aircraft Company

Daryal T. Gant
Dire ctor, Bus i ness Operations Directorate
William H. Harrison
Manager, Off i ce of the Controller
Paul T. Westmoreland
Director, Telecommunications and M i ssion
Operations Directorate
William J. Weber III
Director, Engineering and Science
Directorate
Harry M. Yohalem
Chief Counsel
Sue D. Henry
Director, Human Resources Directorate